While most of the feedback for the WWE 2K22 Hit List Trailer was mostly positive, something that people have been questioning is how the overall gameplay will be.
This is especially true since 2K and Visual Concepts had to rebuild the gameplay engine from the ground up since Yukes left last year before the release of 2K20.
However, 2K has revealed recently not only new details on both the overall 2K22 gameplay and creation suite but also actual numbers of how much new content has been added in terms of moves and the options for customization.
So in this article, we will be going over the new details concerning the gameplay and custom character parts along with the actual number of both new moves and creation parts.
WWE 2K22 New Gameplay Official Details
First up we will start with 2K22's overall improvements so far as it really feels like 2K has spent a huge part of its development time listening, digesting, and implementing a lot of fan-requested features ranging from small gameplay tweaks to entirely new modes such as MyGM.
But now let's move on to the overall gameplay, as this is the most important feature of all because if the gameplay is bad, it won't matter how many game modes are added or if they are good because the gameplay will always bring those modes down.
We already know that this year, 2K has rebuilt the gameplay and animation engine from scratch, with this resulting in an engine that 2K claims "truly defines the WWE 2K Experience."
Speaking about the changes to the gameplay engine, WWE 2K's Art Producer Christina Diem Pham said "We've completely rebuilt gameplay to meet a frictionless standard of accessibility."
"That means intuitive attacks, combos, counters, breakpoints, giving you more options at your disposal, all while making it the most responsive controls we've had to date."
"Our teams have also recaptured and re-timed every single strike in the game, polished grapples, and dives, and implemented new grabs, states, and branching for quicker action and more choice."
"All those choices lead to better setups, bigger attacks, and more dramatic breakouts and reversals."
"For less seasoned players, our new combo system enables you to string together lethal moves with ease."
"Faster response times and shorter lockouts mean the game plays faster and players learn a lot faster."
While the footage doesn't let us see any of these new changes in action, the changes that Christina mentioned do reveal that there is a lot more that we haven't seen yet especially with the new combo system, which we did see briefly in the pause menu during the Hit List Trailer.
If this combo system is done correctly, then it could be a major new improvement and make for much faster gameplay when taking into account reversals, counters, and break-points.
When we look back on the gameplay, we currently have, one of the biggest complaints is how drawn out and slow the moves are as when players are executing longer moves, then it leaves the players waiting for that animation to end before they can do anything else.
This is definitely true from the introduction of reversals limits which were first introduced in 2K16 and have remained a feature throughout the later games.
The changes mentioned do look to be a response to that and could really help to speed up gameplay and keep the players focused during matches especially with the absence of a reversal limit of the user HUB is a sign that these restrictions have been removed as this means that reversals can happen at any given moment during matches.
As for the tease about possible new grabs, states, and branching options, this does bring back memories of the grapple systems of the PS3/XBOX 360 generation of WWE games where players could seemingly transition from one hold to another, which each of these states giving players access to additional moves and great back to forward reversals.
WWE 2K22 New Moves
As for the moves, especially new moves, some people like to hear a number of how many new moves that there will be.
Therefore we can reveal that 2K has confirmed that 2K22's will contain more than 30,000 pre-existing moves, along with 5000 new moves, with some of these moves shown off in the behind-the-scenes video on motion capture.
While that number may seem huge, I would believe that most of those new moves will be for entering and exiting the ring, climbing up the ropes, entrances, and anything in between as it seems higher unlikely that we will see 35,000 moves listed down in the creation suite since there is nowhere 30,000 actual moves, to begin with.
WWE 2K22 New Creation Suite Details
While speaking about the creation suite, we also have some new details that 2K has revealed in regards to Create-A Superstar.
During the Hit List trailer, we did see some footage of what 2K is calling their brand new Persona Creator which is a set of pre-built themes which are said to allow players to get into the action faster without altering the personality of their created superstars.
These themes will let them set up their creation in the image of a Powerhouse, High Flyer, Technician, or Striker without the need to manually adjust their superstar's attributes.
The footage also shows off the new in-game body types with the most noticeably one being a true Super Heavyweight body type which hasn't been possible in any of the past games.
With this new body type, players can create more realistic larger superstars such as Yokozuna, Rikishi, or Umaga.
To give a number for Create A Superstar, we can reveal that WWE 2K22 looks to feature nearly 10,000 customizable components.
To finish up 2K did also tease some upgrades to Community Creations but they remain a secret, with them instead teases that we will learn more about this in January.
What do you guys think about the new Gameplay and Creation Suite details?
Leave your comments down below and thanks for checking into The Smackdown Hotel.
